After performing in a Bentley Hall lecture room last year, OU Improv has made a permanent home this year in the Baker Center Theater every Thursday at 9 p.m.
Thursday’s performance will be the fifth held in Baker Theater, and the group is looking to completely fill the venue once again.
The shows have had the theater, which seats about 300 people, overflowing with audience members, some of which have to seek seating in the aisles or against the walls.
OU Improv worked with the Campus Involvement Center to secure a spot in Baker Theater for the first time in their tenure as a student performance group.
Jessie Cadle, a senior studying journalism and the OU Improv president, said the group appreciates the help Campus Involvement has given them this year.
“We feel more professional because we’re on the stage,” Cadle said. “I feel like this year we feel we’re endorsed by them, and we’re seen as more professional and legitimate.”
Seth Johnson, a sophomore studying video production and a new addition to the improv team, said he enjoys the venue switch because the crowd is more receptive and it feels more inviting.
“It is a performance venue, it is meant for us to be on stage,” said Cat Abood, OU Improv’s event director and a senior studying special education. “It is more comfortable for our audience as well as more comfortable for us as well.”
One major difference between performing in Baker has been having a bigger presence on stage.
OU Improv holds practices Wednesdays and Sundays as well as before Thursday shows.
“We work on vocal warm-ups and then we’ll play games in our troupe to get us thinking on our feet and responding to each other,” Abood said. “We call it group mind, so that we’re all on the same level.”
Regardless of where they perform, all three members stressed how important it is for the audience to know that the two improv groups — Six to Midnight and Black Sheep, Inc. — want the audience to enjoy the performances as much as they do.
“The people I perform with are my best friends and they are my family,” Cadle said. “They are my sorority, my fraternity, my shoulder to cry on. I hope (the audience members) see how much we care for each other.”
ds834910@ohiou.edu
